Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Just some paintings from the year - I am 'working' on the first two paintings, but the third is out of reach as it was my first ever sale - which considering how disparaging I am of my own work, it makes it almost painful to look at because of all the 'oh god why didn't I do this here or extend that highlight to here' thoughts I have when I look at it.

This is a 'mood' painting - using colour to express a specific emotion tied to a place that has special meaning for us. I failed that part of it miserably, but the lecturer couldn't bring herself to fail it, I think.
It looks unfinished, and it is - I had to leave it at this point, because to go too much further into the detail (or using anything like references, which stuck in my craw a bit working straight from the imagination) would have ruined the small amount of 'moodiness' it had - but now that it's passed and I've finished, I'm going to compile some references and do it properly.

This was a paint over of a failed attempt when I was first trying to do something for the imprint exhibit (last painting) - it took me an entire tube of Payne's Grey to paint over the original disaster, and by that point I was fed up, so I just got my more primary colours out (they're close to, but not quite primaries because I make foolish colour choices when I'm buying paints) and went to town. You can't really see it in this photo, but I got some interesting brush strokes and marks out of it; I just have to go in and fix the anatomy and face later on, which is going to be interesting. I'll probably have to sand down the background and paint over that too.

In case the guy who bought it sees this, I love it and it is perfect and you should not regret your purchase at all ;)

Because of my continual issues with time management and decision making, this was literally painted the night before hand in for the exhibit, which was actually about a week before the actual exhibition night (It was a failed attempt to have everything ready nice and early before the exhibit - the night went off without a hitch, but the poor buggers organising it nearly ran themselves into the ground getting everything ready, as well as their exhibiting pieces.)
So whilst people from the exhibition/ TAFE/ the customer all loved it, it has so many issues that I'd like to go back and fix they're not worth ruminating on - I like to think of this piece as an objective lesson in what *not* to do.

If I can get up the energy, I'll post up some chalk/ charcoal figure drawing exercises from TAFE next.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

I'm on the verge of ending a year of studying fine arts, so I figure I should start a new blog in the hope that working under my own name rather than an internet handle might encourage me to be more productive.

A slight change in the enforcement of my own attitudes towards the end of this year has seen me become a bit more interested in my assignments at TAFE, so I'll post a few things I have just on hand - because these aren't quite as embarrassing as the stuff I've been producing throughout the rest of the year. They're still sufficiently 'fine-arts school-y' enough for me to want to delete them before too long, I imagine.

This is the beginnings oof my final drawing assignment - we have to create an artist's book based on the idea of wearable items, or something to that effect. It's vague enough (and provided you know just how to justify your choices) that you can essentially get away with doing almost anything. Mine will eventually be a collection of quick sketches, hopefully with more legs, progressively getting more and more fantasy based. Striking home how badly I need to get to some life drawing classes right about now.

This is from last year, but I'm kind of fond of it. It's an ouroborous I never got around to finishing done while I was on a John Howe bender. I'd like to finish it one day, then paint it larger. I need to fix his tail.